Tag: Lent

We are brothers and sisters…

ONE Episcopalian buys a brick
Another EPISCOPALIAN finds hope

With the entire Episcopal Church—brothers and sisters in Christ, though separated by thousands of miles—the people of St. Margaret’s are giving to help in the rebuilding of Haiti. In particular we are giving to assist in the rebuilding of the cathedral in Port-au-Prince. Our Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori gives us perspective:

The Episcopal Church as a whole is partnering to help the Diocese of Haiti rebuild the cathedral complex in Port-au-Prince. Before the earthquake, that complex included not only the cathedral with its world famous murals (three have been conserved), but a music school and philharmonic orchestral, a vocational school, a convent, and diocesan offices. Partnerships have helped to provide necessary infrastructure for strategizing and planning the redevelopment work. Read her complete statement.

Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin of the Diocese of Haiti narrates a powerful video about the conditions in Haiti, images of rebuilding, and offers his thoughts and reflections on the second anniversary: WE ARE ONE

B Lent 3, Art for Readings for March 11, 2012

REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn
(b. 1606, Leiden, d. 1669, Amsterdam)
Click to open Web Gallery of Art Artist Biography and to explore other works by this artist.

Christ Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple
c. 1626
Oil on panel, 43 x 33 cm
Pushkin Museum, Moscow
Click to open Web Gallery of Art image. Click again for extra large view.
 Contemporary analysis sees Jesus’ action as an attack on Temple political practice itself, not money-changing per se. Money-changing was necessitated by the required ritual sacrifice by pilgrims.

In Christian art whips, flying coins, overturned tables and fleeing Jews make for exciting images and reinforce prejudicial Jewish stereotypes.

sch

Come into the wilderness a place of promise and hope

FROM THE ARCHIVES…

Note: From 1999-2003 Stan Hirsch facilitated the Sunday Morning Forum. He collected a wealth of information. To my delight he archived the material. In the weeks to come we’ll mine this archived material for Supplemental information on our work in the Year B Lectionary. Since space is not restricted, I may add to the original material from time to time. I encourage you to follow the links when given. Come back often, go exploring, keep learning. ~dan

Mark 1:9-13

Quote . . .Lent is a season of great hope, a season of movement into the loving embrace of our Father.

Lent is a time when we are put in mind that we live today in the Kingdom of God, as we shed the distractions in order to see the reality of God’s presence with us. But Lent also is the season that is most usually symbolized by the word “wilderness.” Wilderness always comes across as an unpleasant place, but it is a very frequent setting in Scripture…

The good news about Lent and the wilderness is that it is a time for formation and reformation. It is a time when we can be formed as a people of God and it is a time when we can be renewed in our commitment to Christ…

We are reminded too in the Gospel today that Jesus was not driven into the wilderness by Satan, he was driven there by the Holy Spirit. And at the end we are told that angels ministered to him. The wilderness is not a bad place. It is a place of great promise and hope. It is a place for stripping away of all the old dependencies that tear us down and coming to grips with total reliance on God—a God who loves us and wants for us freedom and prosperity, a God of plenty, a God of love. The route through the wilderness leads us from an unsatisfying life to a life of abundance. But if you are like me, you would just as soon avoid the wilderness because leaving the familiar, leaving the known, leaving the predictable, for unpleasant thoughts, wrestling with what we fear is an altogether inadequate faith to guide us through. We want to avoid the wilderness because it means we have to struggle with hard choices. Choices of temptation. It would be so much easier if we were simply animals of instinct and did not have to make choices. But if we were, we would never be able to embrace each other in love. Nor would we be able to embrace our God with love.

…The wilderness is a place of movement to good. When we go there in the Lenten season, we face the demons of insecurity and time pressures. We face our own demons of hypertension and self-doubt. We also know that we are moving towards Easter, the resurrection and the presence with God. [1]

[1] February 21, 1999, Lent — A Season of Hope, The Rev. Dr. Robert G. Certain

 Image: From the internet–http://travelerstrails.com

B Lent 1, Art for Readings for February 26, 2012

BRAMER, Leonaert
(b. 1596, Delft, d. 1674, Delft)
Click to open Web Gallery of Art Artist Biography and to explore other works by this artist.

The Temptation of Christ
1645-55
Brush and gray ink, 94 x 109 mm
Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt
Click to open Web Gallery of Art display page. Click on their image to enlarge/fit page etc.

Make room (and time) for Lent

Lenten Meditations from the desert

“A traditional view of Lent is that it’s a time of restriction, sacrifice, and giving up things. But it can also be a time for expansion, rededication, and connection with others. Many people take on special devotional practices during Lent; others also make more time during this season to be in conversation with their spiritual communities.”Spirtuality & Practice email dated Feb. 18, 2012

Expand your mind and heart with the folks of St. Margaret’s this Lent, rededicate yourself to following Jesus Christ, find a connection with those you work with, socialize with and with whom you worship. Forty members of St. Margaret’s have each written a meditation for one of the days of Lent. We invite you “to observe a holy Lent” with us:

Three ways to receive the daily Lenten Meditations

  1. Go daily to the St. Margaret’s website and click the image to see the meditation of the day. This banner will be visible throughout Lent.
  2. “Follow” the Lenten Meditations blog (on WordPress) by using the Follow button in the right side bar (or at the bottom of blog page).
  3. Bookmark the Lenten Meditations blog in your browser and, in the 40 days of Lent, use the bookmark to go back to the blog where you will find a new meditation each day.

divider line

About the image: a close up of Ocotillo flowers taken in the Santa Rosa Mountains above Palm Desert in March 2005 by Stan Shebs and posted on Wikimedia Commons.